Iron Man Annual #2000: Review

Oct 2000

Joe Quesada, Dan Panosian

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Story Name:

The Sons of Yinsen Part Three: The Invisible Iron Man

Review & Comments

Rating:

Iron Man Annual #2000 Review by T Vernon (June 5, 2020)

Comments: Story takes place between IRON MAN (1998 series) #32 and 33. Issue includes pin-ups by Kaare Andrews and Bob Layton. The Great Salvager is revealed to be Dr. Midas, introduced in MARVEL BOY (2000 series) and seen in the ORIGINAL SIN event. The Sons of Yinsen will return in issues #46-48. Joe Quesada and Frank Tieri co-wrote the issue, Dan Panosian (pp. 1-21) and Paul Ryan (pp. 22-36) did the pencils, Bud LaRosa, Walden Wong, Harry Candelario, Mark Pennington were the inkers.

Review: The Sons of Yinsen arc is concluded in another dark and wordy issue; they recover Yinsen’s brain while the wicked Wong-Chu gets what’s coming to him (for the third and so far final time). And while Iron Man was hailed as the Chosen One, it is clear that at least Sun-Tao resents him as unworthy of the Master’s trust; this will come to fruition not many days hence. Wait, the Sons of Yinsen have only one woman? And she didn’t stand out in any way, one had to look carefully at the group pictures, which I didn’t. And they killed her for no reason except so that the boy would have a reason for vengeance; at least they didn’t put her in a refrigerator. And she is replaced with a male; guess the Sons aren’t as diverse and inclusive as they pretend to be.

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Synopsis / Summary / Plot

Iron Man Annual #2000 Synopsis by T Vernon

Story continues from IRON MAN #32.

Tony Stark reflects on his origin as he is being tormented by Wong-Chu, along with the Sons of Yinsen, chained around his dinner table. Then Tony sees that the Sons’ leader Sun-Tao has had Wong-Chu’s mark branded on his face while he himself has a small teddy bear hung onto his neck to show what Wong thinks of him. The villain, dressed in bits of the Sons’ armor, gloats and tells Tony that rescuing Professor Yinsen, who is still alive, was the real, secret goal of the Sons. He also forces Sun to relate the other unspoken part of the story: that when Sun carried the mortally wounded Yinsen out of the hut, a portal appeared and a mysterious person known as the Great Salvager took Yinsen’s body away. Wong-Chu continues the tale, revealing that the Great Salvager later auctioned Yinsen off between Wong and the Sons, with the bad guy winning, but also with the Salvager revealing to the Sons that Wong-Chu was alive and well. Wong-Chu now has the upper hand….

Tony and the Sons are sent to a prison camp where Tony asks Sun why they didn’t tell him the truth; Sun doesn’t think Tony would have appreciated the holiness of the quest and is bitter that Tony inherited the Iron Man armor. Sun relates how he and the Sons treasured the Master’s words, grew secretly in wealth and power, spread the message, and built New Timbetpal and took off for the skies. Wong-Chu has several villagers killed and gathers Tony and the Sons for deadly “games.” Tony is able to remove the cloaking card he had earlier hidden in the teddy bear around his neck, inserts it into his artificial heart, and vanishes. The shock allows the Sons to turn on the guards and as a brawl breaks out, Tony recovers his armor from Wong’s trophy case and becomes Iron Man once more. Tony enters a code on the card’s keypad summoning the army of Iron Man drones from New Timbetpal and they attack the enemy camp. But Wong is wearing bits of the Sons’ armor and triggers his own cloaking card and escapes. Wong-Chu fires upon Iron Man, moving too quickly for the hero to react properly. Shellhead shoots down some of the drones and the falling bits of red-hot metal force the bad guy to become visible again and the hero gives him a beating. The Sons rush to the fortified bunker in search of Yinsen but a booby trap kills the only woman of the Sons. A drone picks up a machete and kills Wong-Chu; it unmasks to reveal the Sons’ young aide who was in love with the woman. Tony faints...

…and is awoken to be taken to meet the rescued Yinsen—revealed to be a brain in a jar. At a ceremony, Tony is given a medal of honor and he flies home. And the young man who killed Wong-Chu is made the new twelfth member of the Sons of Yinsen….

Epilogue: New Timbetpal arrives at the island where Tony buried the sentient armor so that there will be a new dawn of Iron Man….

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